Sacrifice for Freedom®: World War II in the Pacific Student and Teacher Institute, a program hosted by the National History Day (NHD) organization and sponsored by the Pearl Harbor Historic Site partners, provided an exceptional opportunity for 16 different student/teacher teams to study World War II in the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii. During the program, students and teachers worked together over the course of six months to research the context of World War II in the Pacific. Specifically, the teams were tasked with finding out more about the life of a Silent Hero, a service member of the United States Armed Forces or civilian support personnel who died honorably while serving the US. At the end of the six weeks, student-teacher teams were invited on a trip to Hawaii where they visited various historical sites and memorials.

Last summer, middle school social studies teacher Matthew Elms and high school student Anna T. were selected to participate in this special program and spent a week in Hawaii learning about WWII, for free!

The trip was an exciting and insightful experience for the duo. It was also funny and awkward at times, “If you could imagine spending a week with your social studies teacher in Hawaii.” Teacher-student pairs toured various historical sites, learning about the hidden stories of WWII. The research and learning activities challenged their thinking and expanded their perspective of history.
 

“It was enlightening, humbling, and heartfelt.”

On the trip, the group was able to take a ferry out to the USS Arizona, a battleship that sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941. There, they visited the ship and spent the night at the  nearby USS Missouri. From this tour, Anna and Mr. Elms were able to look at what many people think of as a tourist attraction through more historical and patriotic lenses. They learned that what most people thought of as a tourist site, was actually a cemetery. There are still soldiers and sailors buried on board the USS Arizona below the rainbow-covered waves of the harbour.

It was an experience that opened their minds and made them think about the significance of the sacrifices that Americans made for freedom. Because they were with a historical research group, they deeply understood that this location memorialized the sacrifices people made for their country and that people today must honor them and behave accordingly. 

“When you are with a group like this, they really help you understand the historical significance rather than just seeing things as a tourist site.”
 

The trip to Hawaii changed the tone of visiting historical sites as well. A lot of the group leaders on the Sacrifice for Freedom trip were military personnel. With guides who have personal connections and more knowledge and understanding of the sites, the perspective and atmosphere when visiting each site were different. There was more weight on learning about and respecting the historical place.

The program taught Anna and Mr. Elms to look at historical sites differently. It showcased the importance of respecting a place and made them realize that there is so much weight, more history, and more information that comes with going to a place like a memorial.

Before the trip, students and teachers were assigned to complete a module on war in the Pacific every two to three weeks. These modules helped them understand the big picture of the war. More importantly, they also worked on the Silent Hero project. The program helps document the personal stories of those who gave their lives for America’s liberty during World War II. Anna decided to choose Golden Locke Thurston, a soldier from Virginia, as her Silent Hero. Access Anna’s Silent Hero Project here.

During World War II, Golden Locke Thurston served in the 29th Chemical Decontamination Company. There, he held a very high rank for an African American being a Fifth Grade Technical Sergeant. As a technician, he handled dangerous Chemical Warfare Service weapons. He also helped organize and control the mosquito population through spraying efforts in Honolulu to combat dengue fever. 

When the United States was preparing for the invasion of Saipan, Thurston’s Company worked diligently to load mortar shells on 29 Landing Ships. On May 21,1944, Pearl Harbor’s West Lock exploded due to an unknown cause. The explosion killed 163 people and wounded over 350 more. Thurston was among those casualties. 

Through the Silent Hero project, Anna helped to remember Technician Thurston as a man who made the ultimate sacrifice for the United States. She allowed for his previously unknown legacy as an undervalued hero to live on, showing people they should be grateful for the people who have given their life to the American cause.

When starting her research on Thurston, Anna realized that it took work to find information. It was like the story has essentially been forgotten. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, they were unable to go to the US archive, and the archive was not taking any requests either. Elms shared, “For me as a teacher... someone who has spent a lifetime learning history, I realized just how fragile the line is between being remembered and being forgotten.”

Though there was limited information on the accident, most records were hard to find. It was very fortunate that they were even able to find a few photos of Thurston. The project was eye-opening in the fact that it shows just how easy it is to lose history. When people lose the grounding of their family, they lose their legacy of who they are and where they are from. And it’s tragic when you can’t connect the family with their own history. The Silent Hero project teaches people how important it is to try to find history because it means a lot for their families to know their own history. Fortunately, Anna connected with current family members of Sergeant Thurston and inform them about details of her research.

It’s humbling to realize that the history we see is only what is written on paper. There is so much that is missing from what is documented. Discovering Golden Locke’s Story highlighted the importance of learning history. Listening to each student give their eulogy, they realized how much of history is lost, how many people’s lives were given for their countries, and the countless stories that still need to be memorialized.

During their week in Hawaii, teachers and students had the opportunity to visit the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). This was a place that is not normally open to the public, so it was a very special experience to be able to visit the DPAA.

After the Vietnam war, United States soldiers coming back from Vietnam were very upset about the possibility of their fellow comrades and arms being left in prisoner-of-war (POW) camps and missing-in-action (MIA) people not being identified. So they put out a great effort during the 1970s to establish a center to identify the remains of soldiers who had died during the war. They did this to make sure that soldiers and people were not still wandering and lost through the jungles of Vietnam; that they have been found and now people know that they passed away. It was important to the families of these soldiers to know or find closure in knowing that their son, their daughter, their husband, and their family were not still alive.

When Anna and Mr. Elms visited the DPAA, they learned that these centers are set up to identify remains, and to search or go look for anybody who is missing. As a group of 16 visiting the agency, they were greeted with an almost otherworldly experience. Hiking up three flights of stairs, they went into the center, they came into a room that looked into a laboratory. The laboratory room was the size of a high school library. Big, open spaces were filled with tables. Each table had the remains of a soldier on it, all of them unidentified. The agency spends every day of its life trying to figure out whose bones belong to which person. They try to find the exact person, so they can notify the person’s family that they have found their father or grandfather or sister, and the family can choose what to do with their remains. 

“That was the craziest thing I have ever seen. Because I have never seen historians, geologists, archaeologists, anthropologists, chemists, and geneticists all working together just to find out where does this shin bone belong, whose is it, and how can we get it back to the family. It was incredible.”
 

Visiting the DPAA was a moment that resonated with the pair. They were able to realise the heartfelt fidelity of the scientists working there: PHDs in sciences who were working their tails off to figure out what happened to a soldier in WWII. These scientists were the ones that had the skills and were called in during 9/11 to help identify the bodies of the victims. It was incredible to realise the amount of work and gruesome sights these people had to work through for others.

The NHD Sacrifice for Freedom program was an insightful and a once-in-a-lifetime learning experience. By working on the different modules and going to Hawaii, Anna and her past social studies teacher, Mr. Elms, learned about WWII from a different perspective. The program taught history students and teachers alike that history matters and that history is there. It tells people to continue to search for stories, to search for new narratives because there is always more to be uncovered.